Headers for combine harvesters are mounted on the feeder house of the combine for cutting a standing crop and feeding the crop to the feeder house for transportation into the combine for processing. Such headers typically include a sickle knife cutter bar for cutting the standing crop, a converging system for transporting the crop inwardly along the header to the feeder house and a reel for sweeping the crop over the cutter bar onto the converging system.
In some cases the headers include gauge wheels at the outer ends for partly supporting the header and a mounting arrangement for the header on the feeder house which supports the header at a required height. In some cases the mounting arrangement includes an adapter which provides a floating action of the header relative to the feeder house. In other cases the height of the header at the feeder house is controlled by lift cylinders which locate the header at the required height as determined by the height of the gauge wheels.
The gauge wheels can be adjusted so that the cutter bar can rest on the ground and float over the ground in a cutting action or can be located at a pre-set cutting height relative to the ground. The driver must therefore be able to control the cutting height of the sickle knife from the ground and typically this can be adjusted on an on the go basis
A further important factor to be controlled by the driver of the combine is the angle of the header to the ground during the cutting action. The header angle is an angle around a transverse axis so that the header is laid rearwardly at a low angle in some cutting conditions where the crop is standing upwardly for harvesting and is tilted forwardly to a much more aggressive angle for some other conditions. The forward angle acts to move the reel forwardly and to present it more aggressively over the crop. It is well known that the angle of tilt of the header should be adjusted on an on-the-go basis so that the driver can accommodate different conditions of crop for example where the crop is lodged and must be lifted more vigorously